Category Archives: Uncategorized

The 2025-2026 Earth Sciences Annual Report is Out

Great to see that The College of Wooster Earth Sciences Annual Report is now out. Thanks to Nat McCoy (ESCI Administrative Coordinator) and Dr. Meagen Pollock (ESCI Chair) for their hard work in assembling this record of all the activities … Continue reading

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Wooster Geologists Ketchikan Blog

A couple of dudes on Dude Mountain Guest bloggers – Cheyenne Wentz and Anika Knowles: Day 1 (June 23rd): We arrived in Ketchikan and took the ferry across the fjord from the airport to Revillagigedo Island (where the town of … Continue reading

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The Phylum Bryozoa is now known from the Cambrian. An updated set of posts.

The vexing question of the earliest bryozoans has now been definitively answered. The Phylum Bryozoa appears first in early Cambrian rocks in China (Song et al., 2026). Until recently they were one of the few major animal phyla not represented … Continue reading

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Wooster’s connection to the world’s deepest bryozoans

Earlier this month a remarkable paper appeared in the journal Science entitled: “Protist-­dominated hard substrate faunas thrive at the deepest ocean depths”. If you know any of my scientific enthusiasms, you know I very much love hard substrate faunas through … Continue reading

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ESCI Senior Independent Studies 2026 – Lynnsey Delio

Advised by: Dr. Wiles Abstract: Reconstructing and understanding historical lake levels provides information about how climate influences lake level fluctuations, which is important for managing Lake Michigan- Huron’s (MH) coasts. This study reconstructs historical MH lake levels using ten ring-width … Continue reading

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ESCI Senior Independent Studies 2026 – Mary Palmieri

Mary Palmieri’s senior IS was one of the first attempts at using tree-rings to reconstruct cloud cover. A double major in Earth Sciences and Statistical and Data Sciences, Mary was advised by Drs. Wiles and Pasteur. Abstract: The climate of the … Continue reading

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A new paper: Two problematic sclerobiont species that survived the Ordovician-Silurian extinction event

It was again my privilege to join my Estonian colleagues on a paper (published today in Palaeoworld) describing sclerobionts (hard-substrate dwelling organisms) from the Lower Paleozoic. This time we record the earliest species of the problematic genus Allonema, finding them … Continue reading

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Voices in the Trees: Update on the Alaska Youth Stewards and The College of Wooster Tree-Ring Lab Collaboration at Five Years

Participants: Greg Wiles, Nick Wiesenberg, Ben Gaglioti, Daniel Mann, Gabrielle Sjoberg, Eloise Peabbles, Eric Benedict, Julian Narvaez, Bob Girt, Arianna Lapke, Lilly Hinkley, Amanda Flory, Michail Protopapadakis, Wenshuo Zhao, Tyrell Cooper,  Lynnsey Delio, Isabel Held, Dexter Pakula, Landon Vaughan, Lev … Continue reading

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Dr. Nicolás Young – Our 44th Annual Osgood Speaker

It was a honor to welcome Dr. Nicolás Young (’05) back to the College to be our 44th Osgood Speaker. Dr. Young hails from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory’s Cosmo Lab, where he is a Associate Research Scientist. Nicolás is a … Continue reading

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Dating a Cabin from Pittsburgh

Dr. Mark Abbott and his graduate students Cole and Adeel visited the Wooster Tree Ring Lab with portions of white oak beams from a historic cabin in Pittsburgh. The mission was to tree ring date the outer ring of the … Continue reading

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